March 2018

Jun 15, 2006

Bob Herbert ("Where the Hogs Come First") visits the Smithfield pork plant in Tar Heel, NC. "This is a place where progress has slowed to a crawl," he says. His description of the brutal workplace might have come via Upton Sinclair.

Herbert: "It was depressing inside there," said Edward Morrison, who spent hour after hour flipping bloody hog carcasses on the kill floor, until he was injured last fall after just a few months on the job. "You have to work fast because that machine is shooting those hogs out at you constantly. You can end up with all this blood dripping down on you, all these feces and stuff just hanging off of you. It's a terrible environment."

More: Company officials will tell you everything is fine, but serious injuries abound, and the company has used illegal and, at times, violent tactics over the course of a dozen years to keep the workers from joining a union that would give them a modicum of protection and dignity...

...Workers at Smithfield and their families are suffering while the government dithers, refusing to require a mighty corporation like Smithfield to obey the nation's labor laws in a timely manner.

A century ago, Sinclair wrote: This government inspector did not have the manner of a man who was worked to death...This inspector wore a blue uniform, with brass buttons, and he gave an atmosphere of authority to the scene, and, as it were, put the stamp of official approval upon the things which were done in Durham's.

Human Rights Watch has done 2 investigations in recent years into the horrifying working conditions and union busting in NC pork.

The first was about union busting with a case study on NC pork workers
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/uslabor/

The second was specifically about the meatpaking industry
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/usa0105/

Some quotes from NC SMithfield workers in the meatpacking report:

“I just couldn’t take the pain anymore. Three times I slipped and fell on the greasy floor. The first time I went to the clinic, and they told me I just hurt my pride and to go back to work. The last time I fell, the clinic sent me back to work again.” [A few days later, a hospital diagnosed this worker with herniated disc.]
—hog worker, North Carolina (p. 65)

“The line is so fast there is no time to sharpen the knife. The knife gets dull and you have to cut harder. That’s when you cut yourself.”
—hog worker, North Carolina (p. 35)

“My supervisor said if we sign a union card the company will find out and fire us.”
—hog worker, North Carolina (p. 93)

“We went on strike because management fired the supervisors who backed us up. One manager threatened to call Immigration if we didn’t go back right away.”
—hog worker, North Carolina (p. 97)